TL; DR
- Today Verizon announced that the default Verizon RCS app on Android smartphones will be Google Messages.
- This means that the three major wireless carriers in the US will adopt all messages as the standard Android SMS solution.
- This also means that Apple iPhone users would be in a precarious position if it didn’t adopt RCS protocols as well.
The major airlines in the United States have been pulling their collective feet in relation to Rich Communication Services (RCS) for years. The RCS protocol is the next evolution in SMS / MMS messaging, enabling larger file transfers, read receipts, location sharing and more. Thankfully, Google took one for the team and bypassed the carriers by offering RCS support in its own Messages app.
Both T-Mobile and AT&T have already agreed on this. This means that from next year onwards, Messages will be installed on almost every Android phone sold in the US and set as the default SMS app. Finally some cohesion!
However, this message from Verizon RCS doesn’t mean the end of Big Red’s own Verizon Message Plus app. Since this app is still the only way to sync messages between Verizon devices, it will stay on their phones. The company says it is working with Google to provide an easy transfer of this information that, in theory, would allow Verizon to eventually discontinue VM +.
Verizon RCS: What About iPhones?
Without a doubt, this information is great news for Android users. It will make it very easy for even the tech-savvy folks to take advantage of RCS chats – including end-to-end encryption. Messages already encrypts all person-to-person chats (assuming everyone is using Messages). Eventually, it will also support encrypted group chats, and it is rumored that Google might offer RCS support for third-party apps. In theory, all Android messages would be encrypted in a couple of years.
That’s great for Android, but what about iPhones? Since Apple is fully invested in its own iMessage app – which doesn’t include RCS support – Apple would turn iPhone users upside down. iMessage encrypts chats within iMessage, but chats with Android users would not have encryption. This puts apple in a real cucumber.
Connected: Apple is more interested in protecting its fiefdom than it is in iPhone security
On the one hand, Apple could continue to do what it does, which is to keep chats between iPhones and Android devices unsafe. However, if almost all Android-to-Android chats are secure with an open protocol, Apple would take a hypocritical stance on its privacy and security standards. After all, it can’t say that security is of the utmost importance, but then it continues to leave a wide-open vulnerability for its users when sending messages to someone on Android.
Conversely, the app would lose its exclusivity if Apple introduced RCS protocols in iMessage. Apple takes this very seriously as iMessage is one of the main reasons iPhone users in the US are not making the switch to Android.
Time will tell how Apple will react to this. But with Messages as the default Verizon RCS app, she can no longer ignore the situation. It either needs to change iMessage or downplay its “safety first” attitude.